Drug Topics - October 13, 2008 - (Page HSE19)

www.drugtopics.com Oct. 13, 2008 DRUG TOPICS HSE 19 Technology and sorted into the correct drawer. It’s all correct dosage is administered,” a hospital done with very little human handling. spokesperson announced. The hospital is also the only one in the South Bay area to provide protection to Other users patients throughout the entire hospital who Other hospitals in the area are embracing receive their drugs intravenously, according the same technology. to hospital officials. Nurses scan the drug’s Torrance Memorial Medical Center has bar code at the pump to ensure that the Muno Bholat, PhD, placed smart pumps in particular wards, correct drug is being provided. The pump is director of pharmacy such as pediatrics, where there is greater services, Little programmed for dosage and speed of intravelikelihood that high dosages may prove Company of Mary nous delivery according to calculations based lethal. As does Little Company of Mary, on the patient’s body weight and other factors. Torrance Memorial tracks near misses, mistakes that The hospital went so far as to name its robot may have been prevented by the parameters proGemma, after the Catholic patron saint of phar- grammed into the smart pump. “Everybody is conmacists, Gemma Galgani, the daughter of a 19th- cerned about patient safety,” said Steven Thompson, century pharmacist, said Muno Bholat, PhD, director of pharmacy services at Torrance Memorial. director of pharmacy services at the Little Com- “We’re always trying to find better ways of handling pany of Mary. If the pump’s computer senses a drugs.” Torrance Memorial is in the process of remodpossible error in programming it creates an alert, eling its pharmacy and plans are in place to install and the drug will not be dispensed until the pa- bar-code technology and other devices that allow for rameters have been reconfirmed by the nurse. If more checks and balances, Thompson said. the dosage or speed of release falls outside certain For the past several months Kaiser Permanente has thresholds deemed “hard limits,” an override will been engaged in upgrading its entire computer netnot be allowed and the drug will not be dispensed work so that more information about patients — such until the parameters are corrected. These safety as drug allergies — is readily available to nurses, phychecks apply to both patient-controlled systems sicians and pharmacists, according to the company’s and direct infusion. Hospital personnel are con- Web site. Its new KP Health Connect system has been fident that errors can be better prevented as a billed as the largest electronic medical record system result of this technology. And when pharmacists in the country. and nurses are more confident and less stressed, In Harbor City, Calif., the South Bay Kaiser it will lead to better patient care and happier em- hospital will be equipped with smart pumps next ployees, Bholat said. month, said Donald Kaplan, inpatient pharmacy No hospital is immune to mistakes, officials say. “It practice coordinator for Kaiser Southern Califoris every nurse’s worst fear,” Harren has said. “Patient nia. The South Bay pharmacy is currently underhealth is certainly a sacred thing for us. We take this going renovation. When that work is finished, very seriously.” the facility will get its own automated system for Before the advent of the smart pump, Bholat said, dispensing medication, similar to the one in place there were few ways to monitor risks resulting from at Little Company of Mary, Kaplan said. “Even human dosing mistakes. Many times only when an if you are 99.9 percent accurate in administering IV had finished hours early or a patient had taken the drugs, that 0.1 percent can be extremely tragic,” wrong medication for a month was error discovered he said. “We want to do all we can to prevent — if ever. And the damage was already done. those mistakes.” The new system allows the hospital to track how As smart pump technology has become more many times incorrect data are programmed into the widely available, many pharmacists have admitted intravenous pumps, the place where the majority of to concern that the profession is becoming obsolete. mistakes are made, according to Harren. Recently, in But Bholat said he doesn’t think that will ever be the just one month, the system caught 80 instances, or case. “The technology is allowing pharmacists to “near misses,” in which nurses or other personnel tried spend more time with their patients,” he said. “We to program in the wrong dosage. In the pharmacy, the can better monitor the patient’s reaction to the computer system caught 36 instances in which medi- medication. We can evaluate the impact of a parcation didn’t match the bar code on the prescription. ticular medication on a patient. A robot is not going “Patients now benefit from smart pumps that provide to be able to do that. So I don’t think our profession a safety check to ensure that the correct drug and the is going to become obsolete.” http://www.drugtopics.com

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Drug Topics - October 13, 2008 Contents Latebreakers Letters Kansas Pharmacists Partner with Law Enforcement to Fight Meth Use Pharmacy Board to Oversee Med Distribution at West Virginia Free Clinics Rx Care JP�at Large Celebrating Community Special Report Self-Care Government and Law Newer Treatment Option for Type 2 Diabetes New Products Advertisers Index Technology Classified Viewpoint:�Pharmacists Must Change our Ways

Drug Topics - October 13, 2008

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